New Delhi: Nine excise duty hikes over a span of few months helped the government nearly treble its excise mop up from petrol and diesel to about Rs 70,000 crore in 2015-16, Parliament was informed today.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said the collections from additional duty of excise on petrol stood at Rs 17,217 crore and that of high speed diesel oil at Rs 52,592 crore during fiscal year 2015-16. This takes the total to Rs 69,863 crore. The additional collections on account of excise duty hikes in petrol and high speed diesel stood at Rs 26,108 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 19,263 crore in 2013-14.

Between April-June 2016-17, the additional excise duty mop up on these two products stood at Rs 17,692 crore. When oil prices slumped in the second half of 2014 and the next year, the government hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel nine times in phases to mop up additional revenues that helped it meet its revenue and fiscal deficit targets. In all, it raised excise duty on petrol by Rs 11.77 a litre and that on diesel by Rs 13.47 a litre.

Basic excise duty on unbranded or normal petrol currently stands at Rs 9.48 per litre, while the same on unbranded diesel is Rs 11.33. After including additional and special excise duty, the total levy on petrol comes to Rs 21.48 per litre, while that on diesel is Rs 17.33 a litre.